As an adjudicator on the panel that chose the winners in a number of recent awards in Cork, there are few better positioned than Leo O'Leary, Head of Business Sales with BT, to describe the current business landscape in cork. He spoke with Peter Tobin about the judging process and why things are looking up

In search of employment and enterprise growth in Cork, the Minister for Trade and Commerce, Billy Kelleher has launched ‘Cork Enterprise Month'. The initiative, organized by the four Enterprise Boards in Cork City and County, showcases the ongoing programmes of advice and information offered by the Enterprise board, to qualifying start-up and expanding small businesses in Cork City and County.

Anita Kirby, a lecturer at St. John's Central College of Further Education and Training in Cork and Tom Aherne, an Electro Technical Technology student from Cork have been awarded City and Guilds Medals for Excellence. Anita was honoured for her outstanding performance as a teacher of hairdressing. She was chosen from more than a thousand lecturers and trainers throughout the UK and Ireland.

Irish tourism is an industry in crisis, according to hoteliers, who are meeting this week in Galway for their annual conference Hoteliers are struggling to deal with decimated revenues and extremely difficult trading conditions which show no sign of being resolved. Total tourism revenues collapsed by 17 per cent to €5.2 billion in 2009, their lowest level since 2004 with the British tourist market performing disastrously.

Cork accounted for 10.2 per cent of the 952 Creditors meetings held nationally in 2009. The construction industry made up 24.5 per cent, with ‘business activities' at 16.3 per cent and manufacturing with 11.9 per cent. According to their last filed accounts, these companies had Creditors of a staggering €1.18billion.

A Cork TD has claimed that the Government is "using a sledgehammer to crack a nut" in relation to its new Retention of Data Bill. Labour's Sean Sherlock has also claimed that the Bill will lead to higher costs for businesses affected by the legislation. Deputy Sean Sherlock said: "This is an important piece of legislation and while it seeks to transpose an EC Directive for which we have an obligation.

With increasingly demanding standards and legislation within the food industry, it is a huge challenge for all operators to keep their staff fully up to date and compliant with food safety standards. Mary Daly & Associates have been 'keeping food safe' by providing training courses in food safety to hundreds of operators throughout Cork and Munster for many years. These are the only public certified food safety courses running in Cork, and are held at The Vienna Woods Hotel.

Deirdre Collins of Cork company Dee's Eat Well Be Happy will appear on Dragons Den on Thursday 4 March in an attempt to secure the backing and investment of one or more of the Dragons. Dee's has seen significant growth since its first Market Stall in 2007 with its 100 per cent natural, 100 per cent Organic, 100 per cent vegetarian and gluten-free burgers now available on the shelves of Dunnes Stores and Superquinn across the country as well as a number of speciality and health food stores in Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Waterford.

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Wisetek Solutions, recently announced as Emerging Company of the Year at the Cork Chamber Annual Dinner, has used experience and a pioneering mentality to turn what is generally regarded as waste into a valuable commodity. Managing Director, Sean Sheehan and Business Development Manager, Tom Delahunty spoke to Peter Tobin about their business, their success and plans for the future